Black Roses
by BerryTheCherry
Summary: MinaSaku one-shots 3: Sakura and Minato meet because Sai's got his father's social skills.
1. What Could've Been

Black Roses

1\. What Could've Been

Side Pairings: MinaKushi, SasuSaku

Genre: Romance, Tragedy, maybe a bit of Angst

Summary: Minato and Sakura have these strange dreams about each other. Too bad they're just dreams.

* * *

Everything started after Sasuke's return. She couldn't sleep and even if she somehow managed to, she had terrible nightmares.

As a result, Sakura was afraid to close her eyes. Because the nightmares weren't just something her mind made up. No, they were worse. They were memories.

Eventually her tiredness won and the rosette slowly drifted off to sleep.

_She was standing at a small apartment. It looked... fabulous. The color scheme was wonderful, the furniture looked comfortable and there were pictures all over the walls. Through the window you could see Konoha's peaceful streets._

_It was the home she always wanted._

_But then the pinkette realized something. It was different. It was all different._

_Konoha looked different and the pictures..._

_All of them were of her and a blonde man. Laughing, hugging, grimacing. She had assumed it was Naruto, but now she saw the difference. The man from the picture was taller, his hair was longer and his eyes were so... intense. Naruto _never **ever **_looked at her like that. Not even when he proclaimed his love for her._

_Before she could marvel more on it, the door opened._

_Sakura saw herself walking in. Surprisingly, she wasn't feeling weird or confused. It felt like watching TV. Like that was someone else. Not her._

_The woman looked so similar to our heroine, yet so different. Her eyes were much... brighter. The pinkette thought she lost that when Sasuke left._

_That's when a man came in._

_The young medic immediately recognized him. He was the man from the pictures._

_He gave her other self a kiss instead of a greeting and if Sakura had any doubts that they were together, they were all gone by now._

_"How was your day?" she heard herself asking_

_"Absolutely exhausting." the man complained somehow childishly_

_"Suuure." drawled the other rosette with a teasing smile_

_"Hey, being a Hokage is very, very tiring!"_

_Hold on! Hokage?! She was dating the Hokage?! What kind of dream was that?!_

_"Minato, all you do is sit behind a desk all day! How the heck is that 'very, very tiring'?"_

_The couple continued their playful banter, but Sakura tuned them off._

_That version of her... She looked... happy._

_"I love you, you know that, right?" she heard the man mutter as colors slowly started to fade_

_"I love you too. You and only you." was the last thing she heard_

Waking up with a gasp, the rosette looked at her surroundings. She was in her old bedroom in her old apartment.

Shaking her head, Sakura decided she needed chocolate. Who said it was only for break-ups?

* * *

Minato was a busy man. Training his genin (soon-to-be chunin) team, preparing for being a Hokage and lots of other things. So, naturally, he needed his sleep.  
Another thing about the blonde was that he never dreamt. Never.

Thus he was quite surprised when one night he _did_ have a dream.

_He was sitting in the Hokage office on the Hokage seat. It was pretty normal, considering the strange dreams Kushina always complained about (_"-and then a giant bowl of ramen said 'I am your father!' _or _"-but then the horse smiled and said with really girly voice 'You have pretty hair.'"_)_

_A woman walked in and _oh my, _what a woman! She had short pink hair and the biggest green eyes Minato have ever seen. _

_"Mi-Na-To!" she started, her voice irritated "How many times do I have to remind you to sign that!"_

_She handed him (rather harshly, if he might add) some paper which he recognized as the official document that the Hokage must sign to get the next one's preparation begin._

_"Seriously, Naruto is bugging me 24/7 and if you don't sign the damn thing, I swear-"_

_The rosette was cut off by him flashing to her and planting his lips on hers._

_Minato was horrified. He had no control over his actions. It's like his mind was on auto-pilot; he knew exactly what was he doing, yet he couldn't do anything to stop it. Not that he minded kissing pretty woman, but still..._

_"I hate it when you do that." she murmured_

_'_So I do that a lot_?' he wanted to ask_

_"I know." he heard himself saying instead_

_A sweet giggle came from her rosy lips,_

_"I'm trying to be serious here, Minato. Just sign it."_

_He took the nearest pen and scrawled his name on the bottom of the document. _

_"There. Now no more complaining, we're going home to have some fun!" he announced with a smirk_

_The pinkette shook her head teasingly "I believe our ideas of fun are a little bit different."_

_Grinning, the blonde kissed her forehead,_

_"If that's the case I'll have a lot of fun tonight."_

_He took her in his arms and flashed them to their house._

_The woman tried to put on a disapproving face, but didn't succeed, considering the fact that she was laughing._

_"You're unbelievable!" she muttered_

_"That's why you love me." he responded with a cheeky grin_

When Minato woke up, the only thought he could formulate was _'That was way stranger than Kushina's dreams...'_

* * *

The dreams continued.

Sakura's new routing consisted of waking up, going to the hospital, having lunch, training with her team, having diner, going to bed, having one of _those_ dreams, waking up and repeating the cycle again and again.

Her life would be pretty monotonous if it weren't for the dreams. They were different every night. However, they did have something in common.

In all of them she was in a relationship with the blonde man (whose name was Minato, Sakura had learnt).

There was one where they had been on a date in some park. Another where they had been sparing.

Her favorite one so far was the one where he had proposed.

It had been so sweet, romantic and fairytale-like!

It was all good, until she found out who was the man she had been dreaming about.

Naruto had said he wanted her to meet his parents and had taken her to the Fourth Hokage's grave.

_Namikaze Minato._

Suddenly it all made sense.

Why he looked so much like Naruto. Why was he so familiar.

Every piece of the puzzle went on its place.

And Sakura saw the whole picture.

The man she had been dreaming about was the Fourth Hokage.

The man she had been dreaming about was married.

The man she had been dreaming about was her best friend's father.

The man she had been dreaming about was long gone.

She never dreamt of him again.

* * *

It was unexpected.

The dreams stopped all of sudden.

And Minato'd lie if he said he didn't miss them.

* * *

Years passed.

Sakura married Sasuke.

Minato married Kushina.

Sakura was happy.

Minato was happy.

And yet...

A day didn't pass without them wondering what could've happened if they had met.

But no one cried.

There was no use of crying over a future they never had.

Over what could've been, but never happened.

Because at the end of the day...

...Life's still going on.

* * *

**AN: Not my best work, but I needed to get MinaSaku out of my system in order to finish 'Monster''s next chapter.**

**So every time I want to write a MinaSaku one-shot, I'll post it here.**

**By the way I NEED A BETA! Like desperately! **

**Love,**

**Berry**


	2. Ramen

Black Roses

2\. Ramen

Side Pairings: -

Genre: Friendship, tiny bit of Romance

Summary: How ramen became Minato's favorite food.

* * *

A seven-year old pink-haired girl was sitting on the edge of the lake, staring at her reflection dejectedly. In her little hands she was holding a bowl of ramen.

Sighing sadly, the girl remembered the reason she was there.

She had made the ramen herself, hoping her okaa-san would have time to have lunch with the rosette. Unfortunately she had had a call from work, saying it was an emergency.

Now the little girl was all alone, having no one to share her ramen with.

Yes, the life of a seven-year old was hard.

Suddenly she heard footsteps coming her way. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a boy her age staring at her with curious cerulean eyes.

His hair was blo-... no, it was not blond. It was golden.

He...

The girl was sure he was as bright as the Sun.

And then he smiled,

"Hi. My name's Namikaze Minato."

Right then and there the pinkette decided that the Sun was _nothing_ compared to Minato.

"H-Hi." she stuttered a little "I'm Haruno Sakura."

The boy obviously took this as an invitation as he sat next to her on the soft grass.

"So," he started casually "why did you look so sad, Sakura-chan?"

The rosette blinked surprised.

Sakura-chan.

Sakura-_chan_.

It was ridiculous how much she liked the suffix at the end of her name.

She did not know much of suffixes, but her okaa-san had told her that adding 'chan' or 'kun' to the end of one's name meant that they were dear to you.

That meant she and Minato were friends, right?

The thought of having a friend such as the young boy made her insides melt.

Her first real friend.

Realizing she had been silent too long she tried to remember what exactly he had asked.

Ah, yes.

"Well, my okaa-san is always busy and I thought I'd surprise her so I made ramen for lunch. Just as she was about to taste it, she was called from work. She left and now I have no one to share my ramen with!"

Sakura's green eyes welled up and her bottom lip started to tremble.

Minato was inwardly panicking. He hadn't mean to upset his new friend. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

"Umm, if you want I'd love to try your ramen, Sakura-chan."

The effect was immediate.

The pinkette looked at him with her green (Was it apple green? Maybe jade green? Anyway, Minato decided the most fit description would be Sakura-green) eyes.

"Really?" she asked with surprise

After seeing the boy nod happily she handed him chopsticks.

Taking a bite, he chewed slowly.

The noodles were a bit too salty and the vegetables were not salty enough.

Nonetheless when she asked if he liked and he said 'The best I've ever had!', he was not lying.

* * *

**AN: Argh! MinaSaku is just _so_ addicting! Anyway, I felt like writing something happier than the last one and here's the result.**

**A huge 'thank you' to everyone who reviewed, followed or favorited 'Black Roses'!**

**And, in case you're wondering, I still need a BETA...**

**That's it for now. Bye!**

**Love,**

**Berrie**


	3. Social Skills

Black Roses

3\. Social Skills

Side Pairings: SasuSaku, MinaKushi

Genre: Romance

Summary: Sakura and Minato meet because Sai's got his father's social skills.

Word count: 465

* * *

Uchiha Sakura did not need a man in her life.

Her son, however, did, because as fun as it was playing football with Aunt Tennie, it wasn't the same.

After Sasuke's death, Sai (who had been five at that time) had little to none contact with men. So, for her son's sake, Sakura had vowed to give men a try again.

... Turned out nice men weren't easy to find.

* * *

Namikaze Minato was calmly doing some paperwork when his phone suddenly rung.

He immediately recognized the number.

_Oh, God, what did Naruto do now?_ he thought

"Baa-chan! Hi!" he greeted cheerily

"Minato." sighed Naruto's school's headmaster "I need you to come to the school. Again."

Minato almost groaned. That was the fifth time this week.

* * *

Sakura was sitting in the headmaster's office with Tsunade, her son and a blonde boy around Sai's age. They were waiting for the boy's father.

"Sorry I'm late!" grinned a young man as he walked in

"Do you know why you're here?" asked Tsunade, ignoring him

The adult shook their heads.

"Apparently _your_ son" she pointed at Sakura "insulted _his_ son."

"It wasn't an insult." a nine-year-old Sai pointed out "It was a nickname. I've read friends give each other nicknames."

Sakura resisted the urge to rub her temples,

"What exactly did he say?"

"He called me 'brainless'!" exclaimed the blonde

The boy's father raised an eyebrow, but (thank God) did not look angry.

"Something to say, Sakura?" asked Tsunade amused and the rosette thought her aunt was enjoying this _a little_ too much

"Um... he's got his father's social skills?" she tried but it sounded more like a question

Tsunade snorted,

"Look, I think staying after classes for a week is good enough. Except if you don't have better ideas, _Minato_?"

Ah, so his name was Minato.

"Well," Minato grinned sheepishly "I kinda think that's too much. After all, that's just a big misunderstanding. Just an apology will do."

Sakura muttered a silent 'thank you', while Sai scowled (he really was a mini-Sasuke). For him that was worse than staying after classes.

Begrudgingly, he walked towards the other boy (whose name Sakura _still_ didn't know) and offered him a hand,

"I'm sorry. I was just trying to be friendly."

"It's fine. Wanna go to the park and play?"

"Sure."

And the two kids ran off, not even sparing a glance to their parents.

Sakura smiled and shook her head,

"Guess we're going to the park then."

"Guess we are." grinned Minato and held the door open for her

Hm, maybe nice men weren't _that_ hard to find after all.

* * *

Both Minato and Sakura missed the knowing grin on Tsunade face.

She started imagining what their kid would be like. With Sakura's temper... and Minato's goofiness...

God help them all!

* * *

**A/N: In my first draft, Sasuke was an a**hole and he and Sakura were divorced, but...**

**Anyway, I'm not sure if I like how that turned out. Is it too weird I made Sai Sakura and Sasuke's son?**

**Last thing, if you're interested in alternative universe stories, you should 'Monster', which I recently updated (SasuSaku, Sakura is the Kyuubi's host).**

**Love,**

**Berry**

**P.S.**

**THE MANGA! OMG! Anyone interested in talking about it, feel free to PM me (other people who want to chat about anything else are welcome to do so too, of course).**


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